DSE ran Hustle-4 on July 25th at Yokohama Arena, claiming 11,125 paid. Results:
1. Leonardo Spanky & Kaz Hayashi defeated Sonjay Dutt & Josh “The Elvis” Daniels in 10 minutes, 59 seconds when Spanky used his “King of the World” finisher on Daniels for the win.
2. Hardcore Battle Royal: Masato Tanaka defeated Steve Corino in 15 minutes, 13 seconds after using the Hustle guitar weapon for the win. Participants included Kintaro Kanemura, Tomoaki Honma (who crotched himself on the top rope and got eliminated before the finish), The Flying Vampire #16, and Tomohiro Ishii (substituting for Riki Choshu).
3. Hustle Kamen defeated Super Crazy in 12 minutes, 19 seconds with a hurricanrana for the come-from-behind win. Crazy got in lots of offense and looked like a Juggalo with the white and black face paint (dressed up like a modified Joker from Batman).
4. Hustle Army vs. Takada Monster Army Round 1: Monsieur de Barbarosa & Mark Coleman defeated Ryoji Sai & Katsuhisa Fujii in 10 minutes, 18 seconds when Coleman pinned Fujii after a suplex/modified driver. The fans liked the effort from the shooters, but there was an impression in the crowd that the shooters are “insufficient” in wrestling-only training.
5. Hustle Army vs. Takada Monster Army Round 2: Psycho the Death (Psycho Simpson) & Giant Silva defeated Toshiaki Kawada & Hiro Yokoi in 12 minutes, 41 seconds when Simpson used a small-package hold on Yokoi for the win. Kawada came to the ring with the theme “Enter the Dragon” and wore the Bruce Lee yellow. Kawada “lightening up” his personality caught the crowd off-guard – at which point they literally started chanting his name big-time and gave him a huge pop. After the match, Kawada got on the microphone and apologized to the crowd for the Hustle team losing their tag match and that he expects more from Yokoi in future performances. The fans reacted in shock that Kawada would be in the same ring with the other three guys.
6. Hustle Army vs. Takada Monster Army Round 3: Shin’ya “Hustle King” Hashimoto defeated Gama King with a triangle lock. The Gama monster came out with his own “Gama oil”, while Hashimoto came out with the afro hair. Like at the last Hustle show, every time Hashimoto got pinned to the mat, the referee counted really fast. Hashimoto countered back with all of his offense (kicks, jumping DDT, etc.) and finished off the monster with the triangle. After the match, Hashimoto announced that there would be a new “Tornado Hustle Pose” announced soon.
7. Hustle Army vs. Takada Monster Army Round 4: Wataru Sakata defeated Kevin Randleman in 8 minutes, 37 seconds with a diving foot stomp to Randleman’s abdomen for the win.
8. Hustle Army vs. Takada Monster Army Round 5: “Captain Hustle” Naoya Ogawa & Riki Choshu defeated An Joe (Yoji Anjoh) & Dan “The Buffalo” Bobish in 11 minutes, 23 seconds when Choshu used a lariat on Anjoh for the win. The idea of Choshu and Ogawa on the same tag team got some of the fans riled up and in a bad mood, while most of the other fans in the building drowned out the cat-calls/boos with a huge “Choshu” chant when “Power Hall” was blared on the PA system. Anjoh & Bobish did the cheap heel heat tricks (low blows, buying off the referee, etc.) to get over. Anjoh tried for a knee-bar on Choshu and Choshu countered with the scorpion death lock. Choshu tried to pin Anjoh and the referee did a slow-count. The Monster Army came out to do a run-in and got intercepted by the Hustle army, creating confusion. Choshu hit Anjoh with a lariat and Ogawa gave Bobish the STO simultaneously. Ogawa “woke up” the referee (who was “faint”) and the referee counted to three for the win.
After the Hustle Army won, Nobuhiko Takada appeared and recited some insults against the “Hustle Trio” of Ogawa, Hashimoto, Kawada, and also to Choshu. Before anyone could get to Takada, he disappeared in smoke. Meanwhile, Ogawa went to Hustle GM Sasahara (who works for DSE/PRIDE in their PR department) and said that if Sasahara had good things to say about Hustle, he would get a discount on the admission price he paid for his ticket. He got the discount, and the “Hustle love” was spread throughout the crowd. Kawada said that he would be willing to rename himself “Hustle K” and change his costume & persona for the Hustle shows